The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) two-year Small-Dollar Loan Pilot Program concluded in the fourth quarter of 2009. The pilot was a case study designed to illustrate how banks can profitably offer affordable small-dollar loans as an alternative to high-cost credit products such as
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This article summarizes the key findings and recommendations drawn from the first FDIC Survey of Bank Efforts to Serve the Unbanked and Underbanked. It is intended to inform bankers, policymakers, and researchers of the results of the survey and to outline steps to improve access to the financial
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This article provides an overview of Alternative Financial Services (AFS) and a description of the key products and services in this sector. It is intended as a primer for banks and others who are interested in understanding the competitive landscape in the financial services industry and
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This article provides a brief overview of the field of financial education and explores some of the challenges and potential solutions. The author describes developments in the contemporary financial education movement since the 1990s and the background economic changes that stimulated its
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This article provides a plain-language description of behavioral economics and the role of common biases in financial decisionmaking, and reviews ways in which the findings of behavioral economics can help structure financial education and public policy.
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This article presents best practices and lessons learnt from on the experiences of the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE), a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan and noncommercial foundation committed to increas- ing access to financial education and to empowering in- dividuals to make
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In a small a financial education pilot at Oh Day Aki Charter School in Minneapolis involving one teacher and about 100 middle and high school students, results suggest that that standard financial education materials can be adapted to benefit Native students in an urban setting, despite
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This article reviews research on the effectiveness of general financial literacy training to draw implications for literacy training related to predatory lending. The article concludes that training offered by high schools and workplaces is associated with improved financial knowledge and
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